Elon Musk’s X Corp. is suing a California law that requires social media companies to explain how their content is moderated.
The company that runs the social network once known as Twitter argues that AB 587 interferes with its editorial judgment of constitutionally protected free speech.
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill last year, he said it was designed to protect the public by requiring social media companies to disclose their policies against hate speech, disinformation, harassment and extremism on their platforms and to report on their enforcement. situational data. policy.
But the law’s true intent, the indictment said, was “to put pressure on social media platforms to ‘eliminate’ certain constitutionally protected content that the state deems problematic.”
Advertisers have fled the platform since Musk bought it for $44 billion last year and started making changes, including reinstating previously banned users and firing content moderators. Musk changed Twitter’s name to X.
During his tenure, the platform saw a spike in harmful content due to changes in content moderation policies, the researchers said. The self-described “free speech absolutist” hired an executive tasked with repairing media industry partnerships and luring advertisers back.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, a federal judge in California dismissed previous challenges to the law by groups including the National Religious Broadcasting Corporation, resulting in plaintiffs failing to claim that AB 587 was actually dangerous. The judge gave the groups a chance to revise their complaint.
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